Anyone following this interesting thread might like to know that the European Information Association is running a half-day course on Member States' involvement in the EU decision-making process and the implementation of EU legislation.
Wednesday, 12 November, at the LSE. Booking form at http://www.eia.org.uk/training.htm
Eric
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Eric Davies
Fight Alzheimer's - sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/eric2008
European Information Services / Coordinator, European Information Association (part-time only)
PO Box 28
Mold
CH7 6FE
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1244 552 137
www.eia.org.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: MJ Ray
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: EU Directive 2006/24/EC
"[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The comments about the UK Government are incorrect. The UK
> Government does not and cannot promote "stealth legislation" through
> the EU. EC bureaucrats initiated and drafted the Directive. Many
> draft Directives then fail because the Council of Ministers will not
> approve them. This one was approved by unanimous vote of the relevant
> Ministers from every EU member state. Ergo, it was started by
> bureaucrats and was approved by Ministers from all countries.
> Subsequently it was approved by the European Parliament, representing
> all member states.
Indeed, representatives of all member states approved it and I'm not
saying its members drafted the final text, but the UK government had a
crucial role in the fast route this expensive directive took through
the EU level before it got fair hearing at UK level - that is stealth.
I'm not the first one to accuse the EU of this. See
http://stealth.strangecompany.org/
Not to dwell on the past, but the directive was started under the UK
presidency of the EU (late 2005) and built on a draft framework
decision on data retention that was introduced to the Council of
Ministers by the governments of France, the UK, Ireland and Sweden in
April 2004. You will also find that some of the supporting actions
which were also started in whole or part by the UK government. This
is why I say that they promoted the directive - without such UK
government support, it would not have passed so quickly, if at all.
Hope that explains,
--
MJ Ray (slef)
Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small
worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
(Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237
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